


V is for Vicarious

by Psychodelikas



Series: The Alphabet of Dreams [23]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Alternate Fate, F/F, WTF just happened?!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 23:03:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13890999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psychodelikas/pseuds/Psychodelikas
Summary: “Do you feel like we’re living someone else’s lives?”I stopped tapping and slowly turned to face her. She was looking at me almost with a pleading look in her eyes.





	V is for Vicarious

“Vala!” my boss, Elaine called loudly from her office. “We have five emergencies. Can you handle all of them now?”

_Five?!_ “I’ll try to!” I called back, stretching my neck from my desk. Elaine raised her thumb at me and I smiled. I tried not to groan as I resumed my work.

Checking and re-checking people’s files for any legal issues under the _First Home_ program wasn’t my ideal choice for a job but it was an effective way to pass my days until I did have a shot at what I really wanted to do. But emergency files which topped everything was pure hell. Those had to be analyzed word for freakin’ word. One emergency was bad enough. Five was nothing short of torture. Sometimes I could barely believe I had managed to survive an entire year of going over strangers’ first or nth huge property purchases of any kind. The only good thing about all of it was that I didn’t have to work with the physical documents, only a scanned copy.

Well, that was a semi-good thing because I had had to tell Elaine that I couldn’t check ten of the usual files because they had been poorly scanned. She had been oh, so kind to make a ticket for those files and they had been returned to me crystal clear.

By the time I had finished work for the day, my back and butt were aching, my eyes were dry and irritating the crap outta me. Those emergencies had been really nasty ones. And long. I couldn’t wait to get home. But of course, the subway was running late, as usual. So it took me another hour until I finally unlocked the main gate, crossed the very small courtyard, went inside the house and was greeted by a small army of kittens.

“I’ve missed you too, I’ve missed you too,” I said laughing as I let my bag drop to the floor and knelt to greet the five little angels.

“Hi, honey,” mom called from the living room. “How was work?”

“Urgh, a nightmare,” I complained then continued to rant about the rather annoying habit people had of not completing the paperwork properly. Banks, in particular.

“Sounds like you had quite the day,” mother laughed after I finished ranting. “But it’s to be expected. People barely know how to complete a simple form for ordering online products, much less something like a property purchase.”

“Don’t I know it,” I muttered then yelped in surprise because one of the larger boys, Speedy had jumped right on my chest. “What, you needs affection? Okay, okay, pissy human gives you affection.” Both mom and dad burst into laughter as I played some more with my needy babies.

By the time I had caught up with my parents’ day and had dinner, it was already nine in the evening. I wanted to watch a movie but I could barely keep my eyes open so I just showered and crawled into bed instead.

I fell asleep the instant my head touched the pillows. Sadly, it was only Monday and I had an entire week of potential emergencies ahead of me.

Of course, karma just had to agree with me completely. For the rest of the week, I had emergency after emergency so much so that I was a hair strand away from filling a complaint with Elaine about people’s sudden interest in property purchasing and their inability to properly complete the necessary paperwork. In fact, I was inclined to believe that maybe she had given me only emergencies on purpose, just to see me suffer. The minute after I thought that I got over it because I realized it had been my frustration talking. I had probably received so many special cases because I was doing a good job.

By the time Friday finally arrived, I didn’t feel so certain about my abilities, seen as how every cell in my body was crying for rest. And not waking up at seven in the morning on a daily basis.

After the most glorious shower of my life, I crawled into bed and my film reel was cut the moment I laid my head on the pillows. However, the sound of my phone ringing woke me up the next day not necessarily early but still too early in the morning for my liking. “Yeah?” I barely articulated, my voice half human, half zombie.

_“Morning,”_ my only friend in the whole world, Zanthe’s identical tone greeted me back.

“Morning,” I said yawning.

_“Sorry for the hour but I fell asleep wanting to talk to you and that’s the first thing I did now.”_

“It’s okay,” I chuckled. “How are you?”

_“Uh, you know, generally speaking, can we meet?”_ she said comically, making me laugh.

“Sure, when?”

_“How about I drop by in…time?”_

“Time is good.”

_“Great! I’ll text you when I’m outta the house.”_

Precisely twenty minutes later, Zane sent me the promised text. Half an hour after that, I was outside, opening the gate for her. “You look positively like the living dead,” I greeted her.

“Funny, I was just about to say the same thing about you,” she replied then hugged me. “Now where are my minions?”

“Inside,” I said as I rolled my eyes amused. She all but flew to the house. I chuckled then closed and locked the gate.

“Ah! My little beauties!” Zanthe exclaimed with a funny accent. “It has-a been-a too long! Come to evil!”

Everyone laughed at her words but especially at the fact that ever since mom had rescued the five beauties, Zane had somehow managed to train them to respond to her call and the kittens rushed over to her. However, they stayed long enough for her to pet them. Only one of the girls, Minnie had taken a liking to my kooky best friend and remained with her. I had re-named her Minnie because the damn cat was a miniature version of Zane, always in my business and making me pay attention to her instead of my movie or whatnot.

“Good to see you, Zanthe,” mom said loudly.

“Hi, Mrs. S, Mr. S!”

“You can stay here all weekend, if you like,” dad told her. “We’re going for a little trip down to the country to pick up a few things and the kittens need watching.”

“Ah, I’m home!” the blonde exclaimed fondly.

“No, no, no, no!” I contradicted her. “Nuh-uh, no home for you! And thanks, dad,” I mocked amused. “The kittens need looking after? And what am I here for?!”

“Shush, peasant!” Zane said importantly, making dad laugh. She straightened her head then ceremoniously went to my room, Minnie perched up on her shoulder.

I growled à la Lurch then followed after her. “Your Majesty,” I joked as I closed the door to my room.

“Peasant,” the nincompoop said with a smile from her spot on my bed, petting Minnie who was purring like crazy.

“I swear, that cat was made for you,” I told her.

“Yeah,” she agreed with a wide smile.

I chuckled as I sat down in my chair. “So what’s up?”

“Oh, you know,” she said. “I’m sorta, kinda losing my mind. More than usual.”

“How come?”

“It’s just that…” Zane sighed annoyed. “I’m not complaining about work! Working as a game tester feels like the most amazing job on the face of the planet. For the first time in forever, I belong somewhere and my colleagues are great.”

“But?” I pressed gently.

“But,” she allowed, “I just can’t help feeling like…”

“Like something’s not right?” I continued her idea for her.

“Yes!” Zane agreed. “I mean, that can’t be normal, right? For better or worse, we actually are in a good place.”

“And yet, it feels like we’re not in a good place,” I said. “I was honestly afraid that I was the only one feeling like this.”

“Never,” she chuckled. She wanted to say something but changed her mind and paid attention to Minnie for a short while. I smiled understandingly and checked my emails during that time. I was in the middle of writing a reply when Zane spoke again. “Do you feel like we’re living someone else’s lives?”

I stopped tapping and slowly turned to face her. She was looking at me almost with a pleading look in her eyes. I had seen that look increasingly often in her of late, as if she were constantly asking if maybe, just maybe there was even the slightest chance there was more to life than what we were living.

I couldn’t blame her for hoping for such a foolish thing. I thought over my reply carefully before speaking. “I want to be able to give you what you want, Zane,” I told her truthfully. “You’re my best friend in the whole world and I would do anything for you. But this is, I think, the only thing I can’t.” I shrugged. “This is it. I wish it weren’t so but this is all life has for us.”

The blonde actively fought tears. “Do you?” she challenged. “Do you really wish our lives weren’t so boring, Vala?”

“Boring?” I repeated stunned. “And just what is boring about having a stable job which could one day bring you a wonderful opportunity?”

“See, it’s that one day part which frustrates me,” Zane replied. “What if that one day comes ten years from now? Or fifteen? Or twenty? What then? I probably won’t even have the desire to be excited about said opportunity, much less accept it.”

“Zane, what’s gotten into you?” I asked worried. Even Minnie meowed up at her.

She sniffled her nose as a tear rolled down. “You would give me anything,” she said, her voice cracking, “but I would give you the impossible. I would give you magic and Stargates and new galaxies and more than you could ever imagine because I _refuse_ to believe that all of the wonderful stories we grew up with have no basis in reality. I just can’t! I can’t believe that this magnificent world has nothing more in store for us than what we wake up to every single day!”

I rushed over to her and hugged her tightly as she began to cry on my shoulder. I refused to let her leave and she spent the night and most of Sunday with me. By the time she left for her own home, she had slowly begun to get over her moment of despair and go back to her usual, crazy self. Before she left though, I made her swear to me that she would text me every night about her day. She had been all too happy to accept.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so very much for reading! ^.^


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